Flat screen as monitor...

Anyone out there use an LCD or Plasma flat screen primarily as a PC monitor in general and for Second Life in particular? Would appreciate some dialog in the forum or privately if more appropriate. Thanks.

Using an LG L194WT flat screen all day, every day. Works great.

At this stage, I wonder who doesn't. LCD screens have gotten pretty cheap in a short space of time. Why even I, the cheapest cheapskate you ever saw, use a third-party LCD 19" monitor (because there was a big price jump above that at the time I bought) and yes, it works VERY well, thank you. (ViewSonic, if you want to know.)

Of course, it is for a Mac. : P

Do you mean television flat screen or straightforward lCD monitor?
I'm on an LCD EIZO FlexScan - old technology now I would've thought.

A flat screen?. Computer screen or TV screen.
Computer monitor can do full high definition quality and more. 1600 plus, dots across the screen. (DATS)
Most "Flat Screens" like tv's are only 1366 DATS x768. Lower quality but good enough.
The experience is good on the big screen but the resolution is not. On most anyway.
It's much more expensive to get great resolution for a larger screen.

My thoughts exactly-I don't know anyone who DOESN'T use a TFT/LCD screen....been using my trusty Benq FP553 for a few years now, and it went through three computers...

For me nothing in a reasonable price range beats my 19 inch Samsung 955DF 0.21 Dot Pitch flat tube CRT. High Res, no worries about ghosting, things last for friggen decades! and no worries about refresh rates, mine runs at 75hz (75 times per second) at 1200 + 1024.

LCDs and Plasma's IMO just have not caught up in resolution, response time and quality. LCD/Plasma screens that would match my CRT tube are still $600+ and will likely only last 4 or 5 years, to the 5 to 6 years my perfectly good CRT has been running and bought brand new for $300.

I have issues with CRTs.....I can hear the tube humming. A shrill high pitched sound. I always had a headache before I got an LCD screen. I can hear the TV a storey below me.

I do! I do! I love it... better than my old CRT monster lol... I keep tat one around for a diagnostics display ^_^

Scary - a metal plate in the head/dental fillings acting as resonator, very acute hearing, and/or seriously noisy neighbours??

My LCD takes up so much less space is the principal reason for me.

Used to hear that same sound on my mom's television - drove me batty. After a while, I had to walk out of the room. She couldn't hear a thing...

No - I meant a 40" TV flat screen. I already have a 21" LCD monitor. I want to talk to anyone who had a big screen, 32" or 40" TV flat screen who uses it as a monitor for his/her PC. Still hope to hear from someone.

You inspired me. Just plugged into a Sony Bravia (LCD) 46" 1080p with my laptop and did a little sightseeing. Looks amazing. Don't do it on a regular basis though so don't have loads of info for you.

(TV has a standard VGA port and that is what I used.)

Acute hearing. Normally a good thing to have, but i can hear frequencies others can't hear, such as those things used to drive away rodents....

@Isabeau: Exactly-no one else around me hears those things....

Santa (bf) sent me a 22" Acer lcd monitor to replace my 19" Samsung lcd .... I'm still like, Wow! Had to tweak UI in SL a little, but the difference it makes is huge to me.... I can open more windows and still see SL

Santa, rotfl when I told him what a difference 3" makes

(Tried to post earlier but forum was borked?!?)

Velda.

I'm interested in this too and when we get a 40" screen, it will be for the computer, not for TV. But waiting until I find the right one...soon I think..also waiting for the handheld 3D mouse which I think Sandio will have soon.

I've been using a 30" LCD TV as a monitor for about 3 years now. It also gets used as my main TV and viewer for DVDs. The resolution isn't great at 1280x768, but its acceptable.

I've noticed with the long times I'm sometimes in SL (anything from 3 to 8 hours, occasionally longer) I've started getting 'screen burn'. Anything in the same spot for any length of time leaves it's afterimage on the screen. In SL, this is the title-bar, my windows menu bar, and any HUDs. Usually they disappear with an hour or so of regular TV, but I think it's getting worse as the screen gets older.

Recently I've been playing Guitar Hero 3 on the PC, and it leaves a considerable mark on the screen too. I'm wondering if it's time to switch to a proper LCD monitor?

OK, I can't stand this any longer. You're all making me feel so inadequate with my 17" iMac.
My TV? 23"... *sigh*

I love my 27" Dell Widescreen flat panel.

You can have it all soon

reuters.com/article/internetNews/idUST13845320080108

Can't say I can add to the OP's question, but on a related note, I wonder why my laptop has a super high resolution screen (1920 x 1200 - 15" diagonal) and most external flat panel monitors have yet to match that resolution (that I've seen). We just started outfitting our developers at work with 22" diagonal widescreen monitors and they're still only like 1400 x 1050 max.

This makes me very, very happy. Thanks.

Back in the pre-cable days when I was a kid, I used to be able to tell which channel the tv was on by the different high pitched sounds coming from it. We only had about 8 or 9 channels to watch back then, but each channel sounded and "felt" different. When cable came along, all my channels suddenly felt the same.



I can sort of agree with this. Some LCD monitors have poor response times. I held off on buying one until 2 years ago. I personally would not own a monitor that had a response time slower than 8ms, which IMO is adequate. I eventually switched because CRT monitors were becoming rare, and my 17" Samsung CRT was acting up. Response times on newer LCD screens can be as low as 5ms, which by my eye seems to be free of the strobe effect you get from older LCD screens. BTW, my 22" Samsung widescreen cost under $400 a year ago, and the eventual price drop/price match shaved another $100 off the price.

Go to the 24" and above and they match or beat that.

Just got a new 30" monitor which is around 2500x1600 res. Even with a high end card, I wouldn't run SL full screen. I use about 1/4 screen.

Also tried a 46" 1080p Sony, and it's OK, but nothing spectacular. To be honest, TV's at those resolutions, even high end sets, are not as good as computer monitors. Not as clear.

For a while I had a CRT and an LCD side by side. Specifically, a Hansol 920P 19" CRT, and a Samsung 226BW LCD.

I was always happy with the CRT, but seeing them together, the LCD had much better brightness/contrast range. The CRT looked very dark, with darker colours dulling into solid blacks- the LCD showed proper blacks, but with clearer definition.

The LCD also showed some really obvious banding on shaded strips of flat color (like an SL prim face) and lost some definition in some textures as a result. For other games it was great, though. It's also way less heavy!